By Team SoftCopy
States like Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Assam are in the race to restore their legislative councils. Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh Assembly passed a resolution to abolish the state legislative council on January 27, 2020. 133 out of the 175 members of the assembly voted in favour of the resolution. This is the second time the assembly has passed such a bill.
The Chief Minister of the state, Jaganmohan Reddy, has claimed on multiple occasions that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which has 28 seats in the legislative council, has been impeding the passage of important bills. YSRCP, on the other hand, has only nine seats in the legislative council. The ruling Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) that holds 151 seats in the assembly is reported to have passed the bill in response to this. The move awaits drafting of the bill, followed by voting in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council was formed on 1st July 1958. The Telugu Desam Party, under N. T. Rama Rao, voted to abolish the legislative council in 1985 as the party thought it to be un-representative and heavy on the state coffers. In 2007, the incumbent Chief Minister’s father Dr Y.S. Rajashekara Reddy (Congress) reinstated the legislative council.
Here is a map explaining the status of the various state legislative councils in India.
